* Graft probes accelerate pre-election, focus on conservatives
* Poll shows three in four voters think politicians corrupt
* As Strauss-Kahn blemish fades, Socialists go on the attack
By Brian Love
PARIS, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Seven months from elections, French politics are turning poisonous as President Nicolas Sarkozy&${esc.hash}39;s conservatives struggle to limit fallout from probes into murky money they may have taken from Asia, Africa and France&${esc.hash}39;s super-rich.
Trailing the opposition Socialists in polls, Sarkozy&${esc.hash}39;s UMP party faces daily news of anti-graft magistrates investigating another high-ranking official or Sarkozy ally -- prompting cries of foul from the president and talk of a counter-offensive.
On Friday, former interior minister Brice Hortefeux, who is tipped to manage Sarkozy&${esc.hash}39;s re-election campaign, was questioned in a case of alleged kickbacks to politicians arising from arms sales to Pakistan in the 1990s. He is accused of meddling in the long-running inquiry into what is known as the "Karachi Affair".
The Socialists, rebounding from the rape case which wrecked the presidential hopes of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, have gone on the attack, demanding explanations from the UMP and suggesting some of the people under scrutiny should resign.
Now, after Sarkozy last week distanced himself from what he called "slander and political manipulation", French media say the centre-right is ready to hit back. On Thursday, government spokeswoman Valerie Pecresse recalled Socialist embarrassment over the Strauss-Kahn case and complained of double standards.
"This is scandalous," she said. "All summer long, left-wing leaders were falling over each other to say, and rightly so, that Dominique Strauss-Kahn should benefit from the presumption of innocence while the justice system does its job."
The litany of scandal has deepened widespread disillusion in the electorate with mainstream politics -- raising the hopes of protest parties, notably the far-right National Front, which has benefited in the past from talking tough on law and order.
A survey this week found three in four French people believe politicians are corrupt -- the worst score since polling firm TNS Sofres began measuring trust in 1977. Particularly troubling for Sarkozy, the UMP fared worse than other major parties.
PAKISTAN, AFRICA, L&${esc.hash}39;OREAL
At issue are inquiries into financial spinoffs from 1990s submarine sales to Pakistan, a family feud over the fortune of L&${esc.hash}39;Oreal cosmetics heiress Liliane Bettencourt and allegations that African leaders delivered millions of euros in banknotes to fund the conservative leaders who preceded Sarkozy.
In the "Karachi Affair", a magistrate is trying to establish whether sales commissions tied to the sale of submarines to Pakistan were recycled to fund the 1995 presidential campaign of former prime minister Edouard Balladur. Sarkozy was a minister and later campaign spokesman for Balladur at that time.
Last week, a close friend of Sarkozy was among several people arrested and now facing questioning over the case.
The case is particularly emotive due to allegations that a bombing in Karachi in 2002 that killed 11 French engineers was carried out in reprisal for the ending of sales commissions.
In the second case, magistrates are pursuing allegations that the UMP may have received illicit deliveries of large banknotes in brown envelopes from the household of the elderly billionaire Bettencourt, a clear breach of party funding guidelines.
In a further twist, a public prosecutor regarded as a Sarkozy supporter faces investigation himself over allegations he abused his position to try to uncover who in another public office leaked details of the Bettencourt case to a newspaper.
In the third affair, a former presidential adviser alleged this month that he had delivered millions of dollars in cash from African leaders to conservative leaders, including Jacques Chirac, Sarkozy&${esc.hash}39;s predecessor as president from 1995 to 2007.
With interest in the election growing, media coverage of the affairs has intensified. Two big-selling news magazines, from opposite sides of the political divide, ran similar cover stories this week, speaking of the "end of a reign" that began in 2007 when Sarkozy pledged an administration "above reproach". (Additional reporting by Thierry Leveque and Alexandria Sage; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)
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